Chicago -
By Steve Rhodes
The Tribune states it plainly in its remarkable series on Cook County’s property taxes and the broken – some would say rigged – system run by Assessor Joe Berrios (and his predecessors):
“Cook County failed to value homes accurately for years. The result: a property tax system that harmed the poor and helped the rich.”
That’s not an opinion. It’s a reported conclusion – one that seems irrefutable.
Now, what are we gonna do about it?
Posted on June 12, 2017
By Charles Ornstein/ProPublica
As President Donald Trump faces criticism for blocking users on his Twitter account, people across the country say they, too, have been cut off by elected officials at all levels of government after voicing dissent on social media.
In Arizona, a disabled Army veteran grew so angry when her congressman blocked her and others from posting dissenting views on his Facebook page that she began delivering actual blocks to his office.
A central Texas congressman has barred so many constituents on Twitter that a local activist group has begun selling t-shirts complaining about it.
And in Kentucky, the Democratic Party is using a hashtag #BevinBlocked to track those who’ve been blocked on social media by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin. (Most of the officials blocking constituents appear to be Republican.)
The growing combat over social media is igniting a new-age legal debate over whether losing this form of access to public officials violates constituents’ First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Those who’ve been blocked say it’s akin to being thrown out of a town hall meeting for holding up a protest sign.
Posted on June 8, 2017
Patricia Marroquin Norby via CAN TV
“Patricia Marroquin Norby, director of the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library, presents ‘Indigenous Metropolis: Chicago’s Urban Indians’ at the Chicago History Museum. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).”
Posted on June 7, 2017
